Reviews with content warning for Gore - Chlorine

Thank you to libro.fm for the ALC! This is my honest review.

This is a horror novel, so you're going to be disturbed. So, enjoyment: 3/5 stars; writing: 5/5. Jade Song is talented.

This is such a complex and intense book. This is one of those rare authors that are able to find the horror in the mundane. This is a novel about a young competitive swimmer in high school and that's really all I can tell you without sounding like a crazy person. This discusses the harm done to those in extremely competitive sports with a little smattering of other equally important and uncomfortable topics. Important read.

Content Warnings

abiofpellinor's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

What a dark and beautifully written little book

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gladiolus17's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really found my niche. Literary horror is the best kind of horror around.

Chlorine is a grotesque, reflective, visceral novel that consistently pushes you to the edge of discomfort and does not let up. It is not one of those novels that goes 0 to 100, it is 100 all the way through.

My eyes were sutured to the page. Could not put this book down. I’d even sneak pages of it at work!

This book pushed right up to the limit of too much but sometimes went over, making it hard to suspend my disbelief. It’s just a small thing, but your mileage may very, and my judgement is subjective. For example:

“Yes! My mom and I love her. I’m thinking about playing ‘胡思乱想’ for the walk-out.”

“What did you say? Who sah loon? Did you sneeze? Bless you.”

I realize that this is about micro-aggressions but I’m not sure any non-Chinese speaker would mistake 胡思乱想 as a sneeze, unless this was supposed to be a joke and I interpreted it wrongly.

But really these instances were small and did not affect my enjoyment of the book. I absolutely loved Chlorine and will be looking forward to Jade Song’s other books.

Content Warnings